Whatever Gets You By
by Midnight-in-Russia
Summary: Ed meets Envy, a trapeze artist from Russia, at the circus in town. The two, eventually fall into a sort of friendship, and maybe even more, but what will happen when it's time for the circus to move on to the next destination? Will Envy leave behind the only family he has?


**Whatever Gets You By**

_Dreams are the touchstones of our character_.

It was a dark and windy day in Castundya, a quaint town in the northeast. The leaves on the tall trees were changing their colors from energetic green to vibrant reds and orange hues. Just a hint of summer wind lingered about the city, but it was not enough that the bite of the autumn air couldn't be felt through a thin shirt or jacket.

Edward Elric walked down the cobblestone street, hands in his pockets, eyes determinedly looking straight ahead. The wind lifted his hair away from his face as he kept walking, further toward the apothecary's shop. He sighed, watching as his breath formed a mist in the air.

Al had been feeling sick. It was nothing more than a common cold, but even after Al had insisted that he did not need any medicine, Ed felt that he shouldn't take any chances. His mother had passed away of a serious illness when they were young, and their father had left them in the care of a family friend, Pinako Rockbell and her granddaughter, Winry.

After their mother's funeral, the boys continued to go to school. Edward graduated from high school first, and a year later, Al graduated as well. A year had passed since then, and now Ed was nineteen. He and Al shared a tiny place in uptown Castundya. Together, they pooled money for the small house. The younger brother went to college during the day time, and on weeknights, he worked as a cashier at the bakery. Ed received a scholarship after he graduated high school, as did Al, and they went to school for free. It seemed that the academic staff would do anything to keep the brothers' smarts inside their school grounds. Not that Ed minded. Soon, he would be graduating early with a teaching degree.

Ed pulled open the door to the shop, and as he walked inside, a bell tinkled overhead, breaking his train of thought. He looked around as he was enveloped by the warmth of the store. His muscles relaxed as the warm air seeped through his clothes. His feet moved as if on autopilot, having come here almost every week of his childhood to buy medicine for his mother. The shopkeeper gave him a friendly smile as he walked by. Ed gave a small half-smile in return.

Not really wishing to make conversation with the kindly old woman, Ed quickly grabbed the bottle of pills, paid for it at the counter, took the brown bag, and left. He stuffed the small bag into his coat pocket as he went outside. It was starting to get dark, although it was only three in the afternoon at the latest. Ed frowned as he looked up at the dark clouds that loomed above the city.

"Of course it's going to rain while I'm walking home," he muttered to himself. For now, he didn't feel any raindrops, but he was certainly expecting the rain to start pouring any time now.

In the distance, he saw the city park. There wasn't much to it. There were trees with leaves of orange, red, and gold surrounding the back of the park. What caught Ed's attention were not the trees, however, but a tent. A crowd of people were trying to set up the tent with poles and wires. A big sign next to the street read "Circus Royale – Opening on October 7th, 1918. Last day on October 16th, 1918" in bold lettering. It was October 5th, Ed realized. The blond squinted at the people, who he assumed were the circus workers or at least the maintenance crew.

The rain started to come down, so he made a mental note of the opening date and started running home. If Al was feeling any better, Ed decided that he would take his younger brother to the circus. The younger Elric loved more than anything to get out of the house and do things. The corners of Ed's mouth turned upwards as he thought about this coming week.

_Al deserves a break from work and school, and this'll be perfect for him. We've never been to a circus before,_ Ed thought. _It should be interesting, if nothing else._

* * *

It was October 8th, and Al was the picture of health. He was smiling as they stood in line for tickets to the circus. He was chatting animatedly to his older brother, who smiled as Al pointed out things of interest. Vendors were nearby selling things like cotton candy, candied apples, and souvenirs. They were selling items outside of their colorful caravans, shouting and waving papers at the customers to get their attention. There was a fortune-telling caravan with a picture of a beautiful woman on the sign. It read "Fortune-Telling and Palm-Reading by Lust". Ed raised an eyebrow at the name and turned back around to face the line. They were next. He handed the vendor some money.

"Two tickets, please," he said. The vendor smiled at him as he handed them their two red tickets.

"Enjoy the show, boys," the old man said with a toothless smile.

Al thanked the man, and they went over to the tent's entrance. They pushed the flap aside and stood in awe as they took in their surroundings. The ceiling was so high up, Ed wondered how they had gotten it up in the first place. The ring itself was humongous, and two very, very tall ladders stood on either side of the ring. There were so many seats, and over half of them were full already. The two brothers hurried up the steps of the giant bleachers and took their seats near the top. Everything looked so small from up here.

It smelled of hay and animals in the tent, but it also smelled of popcorn, hot dogs, and cotton candy. Al's eyes were lit with excitement as he nudged Ed with his elbow, pointing towards a man in the center of the ring. Everyone in the crowd quieted as the man turned on his microphone. The sound of his deep voice reverberated throughout the gigantic tent.

"Welcome, one and all, to the Circus Royale," he boomed, his jet black hair shining in the spotlight. "My name is Roy Mustang, and I'm the ringleader and owner of this circus!"

Many people clapped; the ringleader smirked and took a bow.

"Tonight," he continued "you will see daring stunts and tricks performed by our professionals here at our circus. You will see tight-rope-walkers, clowns, trapeze artists, and even elephants! So sit down, relax, and immerse yourself in what we call _Circus Royale_!"

Everyone clapped loudly and whistled as the Roy Mustang walked out of the circle and joined the other crew members just outside the ring. Music started playing as the first act came on. A very fat man hobbled out into the ring, dressed as a clown, with face paint to match. A second clown came out and started throwing pies at the fat one, who just stood there and took it. The fat clown licked the pie topping off of his face and laughed. They continued their antics for a while until a barely audible _ding_ could be heard. They ran off, laughing and tripping over themselves.

Ed leaned forward in his seat as the second act came on. It was a woman, shimmying her way up a very tall ladder, dressed in a leotard and tights. The light shone upwards, and a thin wire stretched taut became visible. There was no net underneath the wire, but the woman didn't seem to be worried at all as she ascended the platform and took her first step, holding a mere umbrella out for balance. The crowd gasped and pointed as she strolled across the tightrope, dancing back and forth, hopping up and down, and even covering her eyes at one point. Then, her act was over as well.

A few acts passed without much fuss; there was a juggler, a sword swallower, and a person who rode an elephant as it stampeded all over the ring. And then, the ringleader came back to the middle of the ring. Ed started to get up, because he thought it was over, but Al pulled him back down.

"Hold on, brother. We haven't seen the trapeze act yet!" the younger Elric exclaimed, pulling on Ed's sleeve. Ed rolled his eyes and huffed.

"Alright, but if there's anything else after that, we're leaving. It's late, Alphonse," Ed chided.

"Okay," Al agreed, eyes focused on the stage.

Roy waited until everyone had stopped talking. "And now, for our grand finale, we have a new act that we have never included in our circus before. All the way from Russia, we have our new trapeze artists: Wrath, Greed, Sloth, and Envy!"

Ed furrowed his brow at the names, leaning forward in his seat to get a look at the four people up on the trapeze platforms. There was a boy who looked to be about Al's age, and he had long black hair. He wore a "W" on his shirt Ed assumed it stood for "Wrath". He was shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited to begin. The tallest one of the group had short black hair, and he had his arms crossed over his chest, watching the youngest one bounce around on the platform. He had a "G" on his chest for "Greed". On the other platform across the ring, there stood a girl with chestnut brown hair; she was smiling softly and waving to the crowd below. An "S" was scrawled across her shirt. The last guy upon the platform had very long green hair, porcelain skin, and was standing with his hands on his hips – a scowl on his face. His shirt had an "E" on the back of it.

The music started. It was a wicked-sounding tune, fast and catchy. Sloth and Greed caught their trapezes and swung down at the same time, coming towards each other. She jumped off and caught Greed's wrists, swinging spectacularly back onto the platform. Wrath jumped off of his platform and caught the swinging trapeze, riding it like a swing to the other side, where he passed it off to Envy.

Edward watched, mesmerized, as Envy stood atop the trapeze. He looked indifferent as Sloth caught on to the bottom of his trapeze with her hands and swung herself and Envy to the other side. Lights flashed everywhere, and Ed had no idea how they could even see what they were doing up there with all of the bright lights in their eyes.

Flip after flip…catch after catch… They were truly amazing. Ed had even been holding his breath during a few particularly impossible-looking stunts, but the troupe pulled it off and made it look effortless in the act. Ed found himself disappointed as the lights dimmed and the trapeze artists climbed their rope ladders to the bottom of the ring. Al stood up to leave, but the older brother found it difficult to get up from his seat. It was like he was rooted to the bleacher, eyes wandering around the tent until he found the troupe. There was one in particular that stood out...with green hair. He couldn't help but feel drawn to him, if only slightly. Al's voice snapped him out of his trance, and he stood, dismissing his thoughts about Envy, the Russian trapeze artist.


End file.
